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Living in a digital world has undoubtedly made me more impatient and a lot angrier.

When ASOS announced they were offering same day delivery in my area a few weeks ago, instead of squealing with delight, I shrugged my shoulders and said ‘about time’ like a textbook, nonchalant millennial.

Having the option to spend our hard earned cash with a ‘one-click buy’ on sites like Amazon means we now expect everything to happen immediately, and that includes our interactions with the brands themselves.

It takes seconds to tag a brand, send a mean Tweet and publicly shame them into responding to a complaint in front of millions.

But we often forget that there are still real people manning the phones, and hiding behind a screen doesn’t make the job any less mentally draining.

Emily Weston is a 25 year old brand and marketing manager from London. She tells us that it’s shocking how quickly customers can fly off the handle online.

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‘It’s not uncommon for customers to become abusive if they don’t get a response within ten minutes of them sending a message,’ Emily tells Metro.co.uk.

Emily counts herself as one of the lucky ones as she works for a small, very efficient company that doesn’t receive many complaints.

When the complaints do come hurtling in, many social media managers are expected to respond immediately – even when they aren’t at work.

This happened to Rachel from Bath who saw negative comments come flooding in on evenings and weekends when she was scheduled to be off duty.

‘After a while, I started to get severe anxiety each time I got a notification on my phone because it was usually an irate customer,’ says Rachel. ‘It made it difficult for me to have a social life of my own’

Having to interrupt her own personal time to reply to customers was unbearable, but her boss lashed out whenever she didn’t answer customer queries, even ones which appeared while she had been asleep.

It felt like I had to work 24/7 and I could never truly relax.

That fear and anxiety might sound irrational to those who have never been affected by my mental illness, but when abusive behaviour surfaces online it can contribute to a constant feeling of dread.

Sharan Dhaliwal used to work for the UK Parliament and House of Commons managing their social accounts and has had to deal with some truly hateful people as part of her daily duties. Sharan says that there is a lot of anxiety involved in being an ethnic minority in London and this is only heightened when she’s faced with abusive comments which are directed at people who look just like her.

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‘Being a bisexual British Indian woman – whether it’s racism or homophobia – there’s a direct connection between comments received and its influence on my mental health’ Sharan tells us.

Sharan says she was offered no help or support to deal with her anxiety, and says that she would especially like ‘access to speak to a person of colour about certain experiences’.

We reached out to Parliament to ask about their support for social media managers. They told us: ‘We recognise that, given the tone of some discourse online, employees working in social media roles can be exposed to abusive or unpleasant comments.

The sensation of crunching can make unhealthy food comforting (Picture: Ella Byworth for Metro.co.uk)

‘Appropriate training is given to people working in these roles, and line managers can provide additional support where required. We also have a dedicated health and wellbeing service that staff are able to contact if they require further support on a range of issues, including dealing with stress and anxiety.

‘Parliament has a number of workplace equality networks – including for women, BAME, and LGBT+ employees – to champion diversity, and has developed the Parliamentary Role Models campaign which celebrates visible, diverse role models at all levels of our organisation.’

So it’s possible that support in these roles is there, but people don’t feel able to access it, whether that’s due to a lack of knowledge of what’s on offer or the lingering discomfort around talking about mental health.

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Writer Fay was working for Mothercare in Australia when an Instagram image she posted on their account was deemed to be in poor taste by some mums. Mothercare was met with major consumer backlash directed at Fay’s work, and she felt racked with guilt because she had upset vulnerable new mothers.

‘I felt awful, and as a company who were meant to be there for mums and parents, especially in the first years, I thought an apology or a response should have been issued,’ Fay says. ‘But I was told to carry on as normal and not respond’

The company claimed it was a successful PR stunt and Fay says her concerns were ‘very much trivialised in the office, laughed about, and everyone moved on very quickly’.

We reached out to Mothercare for their comment, but haven’t heard back yet.

At the other end of the scale, Claire is a social media manager from small company in London who insists her team take mental health incredibly seriously.

Claire even helped to develop and implement their first ever well-being policy which has already successfully helped team members with mental health issues.

The policy makes suggestions such as time off for work-related stress, phased return to work, space to vent to others and outdoor walking meetings to help blow off steam.

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The company is also strict on monitoring how much work their employees do at home and is committed to ‘locking out’ staff from client social media accounts when they are on holiday to ensure they totally switch off.

Trained counsellor and psychotherapist Alex Carling assured me that with correct supervision and training, mental health problems are manageable in this growing industry.

The simple act of understanding the emotional trigger behind a negative comment can actually provide not only insight but comfort to the manager.

Alex advised that understanding therapeutic terms such as ‘projection’ can offer perspective and can help the employees ‘distance themselves from the situation’.

She also suggested empathy training, which can help the employee communicate in a positive way without resorting to anger which can lead to more stress.

Alex says ‘this is particularly useful if the context of the brand is reflective of societal issues which could cause offence; showing understanding, compassion, and empathy can reduce further abuse.’